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I don't understand the new Dropbox for Windows sync icons

My installation of Dropbox for Windows has just updated and I now see a sync status icon I've never seen before against most of my files, which looks like this.

The sync icon I've always seen before looks like this.

Some of my files have one of the above icons against them and some have the other, and I don't understand the difference.

The Dropbox help page doesn't explain it in terms I can understand. For the former icon it says it means "that a file was opened (directly or with a third-party application) and synced", whereas for the lattter it says it "means your file is synced and available offline".

But all my Dropbox files have been opened at some stage and all of them have been synced, so I don't understand why some of my files have one of the above icons against them while others have the other, or what the difference between them is.

Any ideas?

Dave

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Hannah

Hey @Dave_Rado, thanks for posting to our Community.

I'll be happy to clarify the new sync icons on your Windows computer.

Regarding the solid green circle with a white checkmark, it means that your files is fully synced and available offline, just like before.

Regarding the white circle with a green border and a green checkmark, it means that the file was in in an online-only state and by opening it (either directly or through a 3rd party app), it changed states and now it's available.

If you want all of them to be available offline, like they were before, just select all your files, right-click and choose "make available offline"; that should give them all the solid green circle icon and download them to your hard drive.

Let me know if you have more questions or if that's not the behavior you're seeing on your end.

Thanks!

Roga41

Hi Dave,

You can check this link for your reference : https://help.dropbox.com/sync/sync-icons

Hope this helps

Dave_Rado

Hi @Hannah

No, as I thought I'd made clear in my original post, none of my Dropbox files have ever been in an online-only state.

Here's a screencapture to prove it:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1di5byV0oXJvOcbm3Yerkoi13KWsALXiy/view?usp=drive_link

So why do most of them have a white circle with a green border and a green checkmark?

Dave

PS - I had to paste the above link as plain text because if I made it a real link, it gave me the following error message:
"Content Not Published
Your post contains invalid HTML. Remove the following invalid tags before publishing: a, a (class), li-user"

Is this a bug in the forum posting software? Or why did it give me that error message?

Dave_Rado

Hi @Roga41

I linked to that page in my original post and wrote:

The Dropbox help page doesn't explain it in terms I can understand. For the former icon it says it means "that a file was opened (directly or with a third-party application) and synced", whereas for the lattter it says it "means your file is synced and available offline".
But all my Dropbox files have been opened at some stage and all of them have been synced, so I don't understand why some of my files have one of the above icons against them while others have the other, or what the difference between them is.

I thought I'd also made it clear in my original post that none of my files have ever been online-only.

Dave

Dave_Rado

Also, I didn't get an email notification about either of your replies. is there any way that I can get notified when someone replies in this thread?

Dave

PS - I've just received an email notification about @Hannah's post which she posted 6 hours ago! And I haven't yet received an email notification about @Roga41's post, which he posted 3 hours ago. So it seems email notifications are turned on but are not working in a timely manner.

Dave_Rado

Hi @Hannah

I posted a reply to your post about an hour ago, but my reply has disappeared, so I'm posting it again and I hope it stays on here this time.

I thought I'd made it clear in my original post that none of my Dropbox files have ever been online only.

Here's a screen capture to prove it: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1di5byV0oXJvOcbm3Yerkoi13KWsALXiy/view?usp=drive_link

Dave

PS - I had to paste the above link as plain text because if I made it into a proper link, I got the following error message:

Content Not Published
Your post contains invalid HTML. Remove the following invalid tags before publishing: a, a (class), li-user

Any idea why I got that message and why it won't let me publish the link as a link?

Dave_Rado

Hi @Hannah

I posted a reply to your post about an hour ago, but my reply has disappeared, so I'm posting it again and I hope it stays on here this time.

I thought I'd made it clear in my original post that none of my Dropbox files have ever been online only.

Here's a screen capture to prove it.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/n7p33hpmqbtq31p6n0f7t/temp.png?rlkey=9t7efnm4fc0wvxew6klv59ytl&st=h5wp01st&dl=0

Dave

PS - I had to post the above url as plain text because if I posted it as a link, it refused to publish it, saying my post contained invalid html - any idea why?

Dave_Rado

Duplicate post

Roga41

Hi Dave,

Based on the screen capture you sent, it shows that your files are from a third party application , where you opened it from, and then got synced and was made available for offline use. That is why when you right-click the file, you only see the option to " Make-online only " because those files are made available for offline use as well ( taking space from your local storage).

On the other hand, if you see this icon :

This means that the files are from your Dropbox online account and synced to be made available for offline use.

Hope this helps

Dave_Rado

Hi @Roga41

I'm afraid it doesn't help.

All the files, regardless of which icon is showing, were created on my laptop and saved in or copied to the Dropbox folder using the Dropbox for Windows desktop app.

All the files were created in that way and synced to the server before I upgraded Dropbox for Windows and none have been opened since I upgraded.

Also I've no idea what you mean by "from a third party application". If you mean they were created in programs like Microsoft Word or Excel or Photoshop before I copied them to or saved them in my Dropbox folders, that is true of all my files, regardless of which icon is showing.

Dave

Roga41

Hi Dave_Rado,

Solid Green Circle with White Checkmark:
This icon means the file or folder is stored locally on your computer and can be accessed even without an internet connection. It's fully synced and up-to-date.
Green Border Around Circle with Green Checkmark:
This icon typically appears when an online-only file (one that only exists on Dropbox's servers and not locally) has been accessed, causing it to download to your device and become available offline. It indicates that the file is now available locally but might be automatically returned to online-only status if Dropbox's "Storage Sense" or selective sync settings deem it necessary to save space --- if this is not an issue, you can go to your Desktop App and in Selective Sync Settings , you can choose which folders you’d like to store on your computer’s hard drive from all of the folders you have stored in your Dropbox account.

If you check a folder, that folder and the files and folders inside it are saved to your hard drive.
If you uncheck a folder, that folder and the files and folders inside it are removed from your hard drive, and are only stored on dropbox.com.

( https://help.dropbox.com/sync/selective-sync-overview )

Rachel L.

I'm currently experiencing much more serious issues with this latest update, but the answers being given here make no sense/don't apply. I experienced this same confusion as the OP before other issues got worse. Example, I had a folder all of one particular type of file, and I had them all set to be available offline (green circle with check). Every one was sent to Dropbox from a third-party app on mobile, appeared in the cloud on my laptop, and from there I manually set each to be available offline before moving them to a folder which has ALWAYS been set to be available offline. Most of them synced like this during the update, correctly, with the green circle with check. But a few showed up with the white circle/green check.

These are a file type I can't open on my computer, so that's not what happened. EVERY file in that folder was saved to my computer in the same way, to the same settings, yet the new Dropbox update treated them differently for some reason. The explanation being given why doesn't make sense in this context. So I fully get OP's confusion, I feel it too.

The update has almost completely borked up my computer but I'm trying to deal with that via tech support (no solution yet), just pointing out there seem to be serious bugs in this latest Windows update and if I'm understanding correctly, OP is not alone in this.

Dave_Rado

Hi @Roga41

I've now explained three times that according to those definitions all of my files should have a solid green circle as they were all created on my laptop and then synced to the server, and are all synced and up to date.

So how can I find out why, ever since. I upgraded Dropbox for Windows, most of them have had a green border round a white circle?

Please don't make me repeat myself again.

Many thanks

Dave

Dave_Rado

Also if I go into Preferences on the Desktop app, and then select Selective Sync Settings, all my folders are checked, So all the files in them should have a solid green circle, and none should have a green border round a white circle.

If I copy a new file to my Dropbox folder, it gets a solid green circle. It's only the majority (but not all) of my old files that have green border round a white circle, which they've had ever since I upgraded the Desktop app.

As @Rachel L. pointed out, this appears to be due to a bug in the latest version of Dropbox for Windows.

Dave

Jay

Hi @Rachel L., thanks for messaging the Community.

Did you mark the folder itself as available offline, prior to moving them to the other folder you mentioned, instead of manually marking each file as available offline?

What is the default sync status for new files according to the Dropbox desktop application preferences in the Sync tab?

Rachel L.

"Did you mark the folder itself as available offline, prior to moving them to the other folder you mentioned, instead of manually marking each file as available offline?"

Yes. It was all marked to be offline, always. I created the folders (though not the files) on Windows, they've always been offline.

"What is the default sync status for new files according to the Dropbox desktop application preferences in the Sync tab?"

Don't know at the moment. The update has messed up my computer so badly that I can't turn the app back on until this issue is resolved, and without Dropbox, I have no reason to turn on my computer. I have an open help ticket, he advised me to unlink and relink (at that point, I set it to make EVERYTHING online only so I could start over making things offline manually, so that is now what the status SHOULD be), but all that did was create a slew of Selective Sync conflict folders and start the indexing/syncing over again. I have only 15GB left on my hard drive due to this, I can't afford to let it keep going if it's just downloading it all before syncing, like it seems to be doing. And I've received no further update to my ticket since then, I'm hoping because it's the weekend, but I'm losing hope.

Regarding the marked solution...the solution is that this is indeed a bug? 😕

Nancy

Hey @Rachel L., I'm sorry to hear about the situation. I was able to find your support ticket and I can see our advanced team is currently handling it.

Please keep an eye out for their email, and they’ll further assist.